School: John Muir School
    San Diego, CA, USA

300 students, ages k-12 (4-18) worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 20, 2013. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2005-2011, current

Classes and Teachers: Lusia Mitchell, Barbie Magoffin, Andy Jensen (IT)

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.sandi.net/muir

1. Description of Our Community

We are a K-12 public magnet school with a focus on being global citizens and using the Paideia program for learning. We come from all over San Diego. We are a very small school that is like a close family for us.

2. Summary of Our Project

Every year our school selects a year-long theme for all of our research, field trips, and school-wide seminars. This year we chose local attractions and landmarks. All of us, K-12, participated with art work, writing, photographs, and observations. We (9th grade) were responsible for collecting, editing, researching, and creating our school web site. We had to learn how to convert our information into HTML format, which we did, thanks to Andy Jensen.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Our school is a 1:1 learning environment, meaning that every student on our campus has access to either a netbook or an iPad, and a wireless internet connection. We often have server problems, so it can be difficult to complete our work in a timely fashion.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our biggest problem was getting on and staying on our district server, which is very slow and doesn't always work. Also, Although we learned how to create Google Maps, we had to learn how to convert our data to KMZ files to use Google Earth and use a conversion program for HTML. This was the first web site that we (9th graders) had ever created, so there was a lot of learning going on!

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We are a school that focuses on being Global Cizitens, so participating in CyberFair is always very important to us. CyberFair gives us a yearly focus for every student at our school, K-12.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

Creating our CyberFair project involved researching, writing, editing, and learning new and difficult (for us!) technology skills. Because we (9th graders) were the web masters, we were responsible for working with teachers and students from all grades, K-12.Working on this project was very difficult, but we learned to work together as a team and as a school and take pride in ourselves...and our city!

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

In order for us to create and complete our web site, we had to combine web site design (Google sites) with Google Earth map creation. Although we knew how to create our own Google Maps, Google Earth Map creation was much more complicated. We used Spider Web Logic Editor to convert our data into HTML, and we learned how to create KMZ files. Some of what we tried to do didn't work, but we learned a whole lot and will be able to do better next year.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

We became the ambassadors within our school as well as the ambassadors for our school. We had to work with teachers, students and their parents, and some of us had to contact people at the many attractions we learned about and visited. Working on this project was very difficult, but we learned to work together as a 9th grade team and a whole-school team and take pride in ourselves, our school...and our city!

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

Because we, either as a whole school or by classes, visited all of the local attractions, we told everyone about our CyberFair entry. The people at these landmarks are very excited to be included and look forward to seeing our web site. We will be showing the families of our students the web site at our Spring Open House. We will also be notifying the school district so that they can put on the district web site.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

We are very lucky and grateful to Andy Jensen, who is our district technology area person (IT). Andy taught us how to create 3-D placemarks, convert our data into KMZ, and how to use Spider Web Logic Editor. We also want to thank Barbie Magoffin, our new Art/English/Yearbook teacher for helping us to polish up our web pages. Finally, we want to thank Anne L, our Librarian Emeritus, for guiding us through the process of creating and completing a CyberFair project.